Rainbow Washing: The Problem with Pride-for-Profit in June

Credit: Pexels

By now, most all y’all know Pride started as a riot in 1970, but most companies didn’t even recognize the existence of the LGBTQ+ community for another 3-4 decades. Thus the mid-aughts brought us pinkwashing, or what is now referred to as, rainbow washing. Essentially, it’s the performative-for-profit strategy and tactics of allyship from people, governments, and corporations with minimal effort, no tangible ongoing work, or consistent monetary effort to support LGBTQ+ people.

Fuck it, we’re gonna jump right into it – supporting the LGBTQ+ community shouldn’t be a one-time marketing and sales gimmick. It SHOULD require an ongoing commitment to inclusivity, safety, respect, and love (and y’all don’t even need to plaster rainbows and representation everywhere to show support… idk*, just show up).

Unfortunately, we usually see these types of brands during June:

• The most performative give NOTHING during June or any other part of the year they just create Pride content and merchandise.

• The second most performative give money, once, to one organization (don’t get us wrong any money is helpful for LGBTQ NPOs, human rights, and social justice).

• The third most performative are the profit-sharers during June where the sales of co-branded products dictate the donation

Credit: Oreo X PFLAG press release.

You might also see rainbow washing in the forms of:

• Launching Pride initiatives
• Using LGBTQ+ team members as props in content
• Using the rainbow to push products
• Having corporate groups marching in parades
• Changing logos temporarily
• Making empty gestures
• Fostering an unsafe workplace for queer staff

Credit: Reddit via Credo

First off, yes giving for a month is (monetarily) better than not at all, but when one only comes through for their own timely benefit, it looks like this:

• Go global or cut the bull! Ford went hard on some trolls when their European team turned a negative into a positive – check out the “very gay Raptor” pride response they had to unsavory social comments. But here in the States, they’ve been very Pride-less in general, especially on their social media platforms where they are heard most.

• Healthcare hypocrisy is real as the premiums are high in this country. Think about how our trans folks feel when their healthcare provider shows up in the local pride parade but doesn’t offer accessible gender-affirming care.

• Safety shouldn’t ever stop. Being able to feel like you can be you at work or shop/attend an establishment you enjoy is invigorating, but only when it’s all the time. Seeing Target cave to psychotic, right-wing hysteria is demoralizing.

Credit: coworker.org

• Gayfabe is the new kayfabe (and not in the good way). As many LGBTQ+ are pet parents, think about how this copy in a BarkBox email may make them feel like they just stepped in a pile of false sense of hope. Basically, as we see far too often, code-switching on consumers comes in the form of a drop-dead date aka, “You’re dead to us and we’ll go on with business as usual and give the anti-LGBTQ+ their voice back after the 30th.”

• Fake opportunities for the community (using employees as tokenism but not promoting them or not paying/only once paying LGBTQ+ influencers)

• Lack of loyalty is the easiest way to burn bridges and ruin relationships. If companies want more consumers to keep coming back then put your money (that you probably got from us) where your mouth is because we will find out, we always find out.

• Non-responsiveness tells all – for our entire lives we’ve been unanswered, ghosted, not listened to, etc. Imagine engaging your queer customers (usually as a less-genuine marketing ploy, but still) and when they respond you give them nothing.

• One (month) and done is triggering for many queer folk – abandonment issues are one of the top causes for LGBTQ+ unhousedness and suicide.

• Authenticity is only real when everyone is their true selves. Imagine being queer (whether out forever or getting the courage to come out) and you’re so stoked your favorite brand is as proud as you are… and then they say “Later gays, it’s July” or completely contradict loving you for who you are. In the same year that Adidas dropped its soccer pride pack it was one of the major sponsors for the World Cup in Russia – a country with anti-LGBTQ laws. Stuff like this makes it unsafe for fans and athletes. That contradiction throws into sharp relief the emptiness that can lie at the center of corporate gestures of “support” for the LGBTQ community.

Credit: knowyourmeme.com

• If you don’t have queer representation, or hire LGBTQ+ consultants, it shows! Just like that Steve Buscemi high school meme, we can tell when you’re faking it! Fake lashes are fine, faking culture is not.

Corporations and organizations don’t have to go all out all year, but if they were willing to participate in uplifting communities and supporting NPOs one month a year, they should, at the very least still be there for them once that month is over. Notably, July is uber ‘murican, so the contrast of stopping the celebration of millions of Americans right before being even more celebratory of a country where not all of those people are guaranteed equal rights, is dangerously hypocritical.

It’s also economically stupid. A study by BBC Business suggested that “upwards of 90% of gay people support businesses which target pink money, while actively boycotting anti-gay companies”, and in 2017 MarketingMag stated “Almost 70% of homosexuals admit to being positively influenced by ads that contain gay and lesbian imagery…”, and fairly equal stats were found about all Millennials in general. So these companies could double-down by getting down with everyone all year long.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t tout the companies that do support LGBTQ+ 365 though, so please support when/if you can (yes, no company is perfect but these are trying more than many others):

• Columbia Sportswear
• Nike
• Eddie Bauer
• REI (wow us queers sure are active)
• Lush Cosmetics (prob helps that they’re Canadian)
• Abercrombie & Fitch
• Subaru
• MeUndies
• Volkswagen
• Patagonia (we really are so outdoorsy)
• And this list of The Trevor Project’s current product partners

Skittles donated $1 from each pride pack for 3 months adding up to $100k for GLAAD. Credit: Author’s licensed Marketing 8e textbook from McGraw Hill

What it really comes down to is an easy concept: If you’re gonna show up in June for Pride, in February/on Juneteenth for Black History, in March for the female-identifying community, etc, but y’all don’t show up the rest of the year, then don’t show up at all. Earlier this month, the Human Rights Campaign proclaimed a national state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States. Your rainbow washing and performative allyship is incredibly apparent to everyone.

To be a true ally, try these initiatives on for size:

• Externally support the community year-round (all marginalized communities in fact)
• Empower queer and minority employees every day
• Be transparent starting with your mission statement and core values
• Make sure support is measurable and the metrics are visible
• Proactively address community issues and willing to receive feedback
• Offer equitable and equal paid opportunities for queer folk
• Speak the fuck up to impact anti-LGBTQI+ policy and legislation

Per usual, if you’d like to see more content like this you can join the BAS Patreon, tip your favorite queer writer, and donate to an LGBTQ foundation or two yourself.

*Author is a professor of marketing, sits on the “Safe @“ LGBTQ committee of their school, has worked in tech, retail, and eCommerce, and is queer AF.